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Re: Starting Cereal-Help!

Most Dr's don;' reccomend mixing cereal int he bottle - the choking hazard is too great

You would think they wouldn't but two peds have already suggested this to me & I have heard a ton of other moms who do it b/c their peds suggest it.

About water...when are you supposed to give your baby water to drink? My mother in law keeps asking me if I have given her water yet. I try to tell her that since I am breastfeeding, there is already enough water in the milk.

you are right on with this one. Babies that are BF don't need water but I don't think there is alot of harm in letting them have a few sips (to get used to a cup maybe) when they are 5-6 mos. I know early on it is not recommended.

Also, I always read that you should BF first, and then give solids. As the other pp said, solids are there for experimenting in the beg, & aren't supposed to be the main calorie source, that's BM. So if you nurse first your baby should still nurse the same & your supply shouldn't drop.

Re: Starting Cereal-Help!

according to the book , so that's what they're for, a bf baby doesn't need water, and if you want them to get more water, the mom should drink more also, it says it can actually be dangerous to give water before 6 mo, because it can actually dilute the blood. who knows? lol my mil also says the same, when are we going to start putting cereal in his bottle (im not) and my sil tried to give him water, and they keep asking when am i going to start giving it to him, but oh well. everyone KNOWS how to raise the babies THE ONLY right way, right?

Re: Starting Cereal-Help!

Any Ped who is still saying to put cereal in a bottle is not very up to date on baby info is he/she. Funny seeing as they are supposed to be baby specialists.

If you don't think you can add the breastmilk, add some water. Just boil it for 5 mins first.

Also, formula should only be mixed with cereal if they have been introduced to both formula and cereal before as you are only supposed to introduce one new food at a time. I know you said that she has had formula before so I guess it is a reminder to others.

If you don't want to give cereal from a box, apparently you can make brown rice according to directions and puree that mixed with breastmilk. Saw it on a website about making baby food.

Also, the Canadian Pediatric society recommends that when you start solids that you do it in the mornings rather than evenings. Reason being is that if they are going to have some kind of reaction to it (i.e. upset stomach, gas) it happens during the day and not at night when it will affect everyones sleep.

Re: Starting Cereal-Help!

Originally Posted by Kim9983

He said that the cereal can be mixed with milk in her bottle and she could drink it. After I told him I was breastfeeding, he said that mixing it with a small amount of formula would be fine...and then breastfeed after giving her the bottle.

Believe it or not, not all pediatricians are pro-breastfeeding or even care one way or another. I myself have encountered an anti-breastfeeding pediatrician. To start with it is recommended to never put cereal in a bottle, it is a choking hazard so why he would tell you to do this who knows. Usually when you start solids you would want to use a spoon. I tried both rice and oatmeal with dd, she kept getting contipated so we jsut skipped right on to fruits veggis & meats. DS had intestinal problems and his pedi-surgeon told us to skip cereals once he was finally cleared for solids (8 mo). I also agree that by giving a bottle of formula would hurt you milk supply. Formula does not digest as easily as breastmilk and would sit in you little ones tummy for longer (especially since db is not used to having to digest it) and therefore may not be hungry for next feeding. You could always use water to mix with cereal too. Sorry if I keep jumping back and forth, that is just how my brain works these days! Hope this helped!

starting other liquids

Our doc. said to offer water at 6 mos. and see what happens. Our boy is now 10.5 mo and just in the past month has really started drinking very watered down juice from sippy cup or cup with straw. He just wasn't super interested before. We usually just give it to him with meals, as I want him to nurse well other times of the day.

Re: Starting Cereal-Help!

Hi everyone.

Here in New Zealand we don't necessarily start babies on cereal. Common first foods are cooked fruit and vegetables, esp pumpkin, pear, apple, etc. When my babies did have cereal (usually on days I had no fruit or veges cooked for them) I really couldn't be bothered with expressing so I mixed it with cooled boiled water and they still enjoyed it. At 6 months of age breastmilk is still giving them 100% of their nutritional and energy requirements.

Re: Starting Cereal-Help!

Thanks everyone for the help! Only a couple of weeks to go before she turns 6 months...we are excited! My dh is anxiously waiting to spoon feed her. He's tried to slip her a taste of his food a couple of times, in which I had to explain to him that she is not to get anything yet. She is definately showing interest. I have to laugh when she watches our every move when we eat and tries to grab my fork when I'm trying to put food in my mouth. One time she about knocked my food all over my lap. And when dh tried giving her a bite of his food, she took the spoon in her mouth like she knew what to do. It's kind of scary that everyone I've talked to recommends doing something different for which solids to start out with. My ped said to start out with orange/yellow vegetables like carrots and squash. And he also said that I should start out with veges before fruit so that she will not make a preference for fruit. I have to say that makes sense...but I kind of figured the cereal in the bottle thing was old news. And just as I thought...it did not help her to sleep through the night. My mother in law looked confused when I told her that didn't work...since she had my dh started on cereal at 1 month old and he suddently started sleeping through the night. She told me that maybe i need to try it more than once. I just agreed to avoid getting the "wierd looks". But I've convinced dh to agree to wait. And if he tries to slip her any more food until then I will probably know about it...last time I came home from work and she had most of it all over her shirt. My hubby had no choice but to confess. I think I have two kids in the family...Lol.

Re: Starting Cereal-Help!

And he also said that I should start out with veges before fruit so that she will not make a preference for fruit. I have to say that makes sense

This is advice better suited for a formula-fed baby. Breastmilk is sweet so it actually makes sense to offer fruits as a first food because baby is already associated with the flavor (sweet). Also, as a general rule, breastfed babies tend to enjoy a wider variety of foods than formula-fed babies because they have been exposed to many different flavors via breastmilk.

Re: Starting Cereal-Help!

We get the same outdated advice from both mom and mil...mil was even told to put dh on skim milk instead of formula b/c he was "gaining too much," which I think is impossible on a liquid diet...too much would just get spit up. Our kids are healthy and huge, having inherited the 6ft tall genes, and I'm guessing dh would have been just as healthy in the 75-90% if bm had been in style then.

For dd, we tried cereal at 3mo to sleep thru the night...gave her a tummy ache...what a long, guilty, sleepless night.

About cereal in bottles...besides choking, it might be possible for babies to consume too much too quickly since it is more dense than bm or formula. Some of the sleeping success stories are b/c baby's tummy felt full longer with undigested cereal despite a nutrtional need for bm/formula overnight. They also used to use water to fill a bf baby's tummy when the baby wanted to cluster feed in the evening, thus unnaturally stretching feeding times and depriving them, I think.

ITA about nursing first, then solids, to make a meal, esp with supply issues. Takes a lot of the guesswork out portion size, just whatever they have room for after bm. It starts so diluted that I didn't worry about thirst. I offered a sip of watered down juice after cereal once we got to juice, but not a huge amount. My dd also threw a fit the one time we tried cereal before nursing---she was hungry and furious since cereal was new and hunger meant bf. But, she was getting increasingly hungry, so cereal after a full nursing helped fill up the extra room in her growing tummy.

I think unless you have allergy concerns, the first food is a matter of opinion as long as you stick to the common ones. Rice is so bland that it is very hypoallergenic, and around 6mo., babies deplete their prenatal iron stores, so it could be a problem for babies on low-iron formula (which is no longer recommended anyway...) Bm has less iron than formula but it is better absorbed, so I think some out of date docs think that bf babies are in need of cereal for the iron, before studies were done on absorbtion. Meat is what they make hypoallergenic formula out of (non-soy, non-dairy formulas), and fruits are very pleasant, and orange veggies are also pleasant but not overly sweet...so they all make sense, just pick whichever one at a time.

Caution--If you do veggies, don't do homemade carrots before 7mo, or branch into beets, spinich, and other uncommon veggies until you find a list. Those (and a couple others) can have too high levels of nitrates from the soil for baby to digest. Not as yummy as pumpkin or sweet potatoes anyway.